Gulping down a beer or a fizzy (aerated) drink on a hot summer afternoon to quench your thirst is not a good idea. In fact, it is counter-productive. That is what doctors aver. The consumption of these drinks will make you more dehydrated. Any drink with high amounts of caffeine will make a person lose more fluids, and the high sugar content comes in the way of absorption by the body.
A nutrition consultant, Suneetha Sapur, said that aerated drinks contain caffeine and sugar. “Any fluid which contains caffeine is diuretic and that causes an increased output of urine. This means more fluids are lost. Aerated drinks have caffeine and are therefore diuretic. So drinking aerated drinks does not help in quenching thirst,” said Ms. Suneetha who works on water and nutrition linkages. Beer too is diuretic, she said.
She added that fluids are of three categories based on sugar and salt content: hypotonic, isotonic and hypertonic. And sugar plays a key role in absorption rate of fluids into the body.
